Huawei Mate S Review - Battery life and verdict Review

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Huawei Mate S review – Battery Life

If you’re looking for a phone that will offer more than a day of use, the Huawei Mate S isn’t for you.

In truth, I’m disappointed with the Mate S’ 2,700 mAh battery. Streaming an episode of House of Cards on Netflix at about 70% brightness chewed through 13%, while playing Real Racing 3 for 30-minutes took the phone from 63% to 37%.

It can go a day if you’re solely browsing, emailing and messaging, but give it more intensive tasks and you’ll be reaching for the charger before leaving the office.

Huawei has included Quick Charge and plugging it in for 30-minutes will give you about 20% extra charge, which at least helps mitigate its poor battery life.

When you do hit the red, there is a fairly extensive battery saver mode – called Ultra – that only lets you call and text. It’s like going back to a feature phone, circa 2002.

Should you buy the Huawei Mate S?

This is a tricky one, because I’m not really sure who the Huawei Mate S is targeting and I don’t know if and when it will come to the UK.

Yes, it looks really nice. It’s slim, light and powerful and has a big, accurate display. But it doesn’t really do anything better than the competition.

The implementation of Force Touch in the top-end version is pointless and it seems like it was only included to make a splash in the press and get a one-up on Apple. For me, it doesn’t work and it doesn’t need to be there until someone finds a good use for it.

Then there’s Huawei’s EMUI skin. With Android 5 (and 6) being both functional and good-looking, it’s a shame Huawei has taken such a heavy hand skinning the OS.

I could forgive a lot these shortcomings if this was a device in the same price bracket as the OnePlus 2 or Moto X Style, but it’s not. The 32GB costs €649, the 64GB version goes for €699 and the 128GB Force Touch model doesn’t even have a price yet – but rest assured it will be high.

Verdict

For a phone with so many features, the Huawei Mate S struggles to stand out. It’s time for Huawei to lose the gimmicks and focus on the core experience.

Score

Score in detail

Performance 8

Camera 8

Design 8

Battery Life 7

Usability 7

Value 6

Features 7

Software 5

Calls & Sound 8

Screen Quality 8

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